Monday, November 11, 2013

How a rumour passed on Twitter got the taxman calling Hotel Saravana Bhavan

The tweet mentioned a “rumour” about Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Group buying the home-grown restaurant chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan.By Sangeetha Kandavel, ET Bureau | 6 Nov, 2013, 01.40PM ISTCHENNAI: It had all the makings of a viral tweet. It mentioned a "rumour" about Kalanithi Maran's Sun Group buying the home-grown restaurant chain Hotel Saravana Bhavan. That too, for a jaw-dropping sum. Yet, this Monday tweet by Bangalore-based techie RB Suseendran received a tepid response, at best.

It would have died a natural death if journalists hadn't seen this tweet. They did. And on Monday journalists scurried for confirmation from both parties.

This, even as journalists wondered why Maran would buy into the food business, however yummy (Saravana Bhavan has daily footfalls of some 80,000 across its 32 Indian outlets; there are 46 more overseas), when he is yet struggling with this 2010 acquisition of carrier SpiceJet.

Both parties denied it vehemently on Monday. A Sun TV spokesperson called it "hilariously funny" while another thought it was "rubbish." A spokesperson for Saravana Bhavan denied it too.

The episode seemed to have ended then and there, without a story. But it hadn't.

On Tuesday, the Income Tax Department got alerted. An official called up Saravana Bhavan to see this tweet indeed was true. Taxmen had raided the hotel just a few months back.

When ET contacted Suseendran over phone, he said he merely picked up the new from the Facebook page of one Anbalagan Veerappan.The hotel, not so savvy in the ways of social media, was left wondering where it all came from.